Uber Ride Request Button

Uber Just Made Ordering Rides Even Easier

Uber's new feature is a must for those late night Uber rides where opening another app on your phone seems like a Herculean task.

Today, the car service giant announced that it would enable iOS and Android developers to add a ride request button to any app with the simple addition of a few lines of code. Basically, if the app already contains address data — say to a movie theater or restaurant — the new functionality will automatically pull the data and enter it into the requested ride.

This new button is a small sign of just how far we’ve come in terms of caring about our privacy. Before, the ultimate fear was that a shadowy organization would monitor our every action. Now, we’re all good with that as long as they dispatch a car promptly when we need one.

And it’s not like the Uber leadership has been shy about monitoring customer use. Not that there’s much to complain about. The question at hand: If they are monitoring customer use, so what? If they don’t have a strictly nefarious purpose, then bring on the convenient rides! If they do, well, we’ll probably still take the rides.

For developers, the sheer ease with which the functionality can be added is a major plus. There's basically no excuse for them not to include it, especially because if they bring new riders to Uber, they can be paid $5 per new customer by Uber’s Affiliate program.

While this may not seem like much, the increase in convenience has gone to an awesome level. What other granular improvements can there be? Will we be able to order an Uber just by thought? Probably, before too long, Ubers will just show up at your house the second you Google a new bar or restaurant.